Canadian police to launch probe into grisly hoax

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police said on Friday they
plan to launch an investigation into a macabre prank, after
what was thought to be a severed human foot that washed up on
the Pacific Coast turned out to be a hoax.

"Whether it was something that was done for a laugh or as a
joke or for attention, it's not something that will be
tolerated," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Const. Annie Linteau
told Reuters.

The RCMP has appealed to the public for information and
will begin further investigations soon, Linteau said.

The British Columbia Coroners Service confirmed on Thursday
that the sneaker-clad "foot," discovered on a Vancouver Island
beach on Wednesday, was actually a skeletonized animal paw
placed inside a seaweed-stuffed sock.

The find came just days after an actual human foot was
found floating south of Vancouver on Monday. That incident
marked the fifth sneaker-clad foot to be found in the region
since last August.

Speculation has run rampant about the finds, with some
suggesting they may be the remains of accident victims.

Sally Feast, of Campbell River, British Columbia, is one of
four area women whose husbands were lost in a float plane crash
three years ago. The bodies of three, including Feast's, were
never recovered and she said she hopes police will find the
culprit behind the hoax.

"That's just a rotten thing for someone to do, especially
in our town where everybody knows about the crash," she said.
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